Transcript

Buachaill[1] as an áit a tóigeadh mise, pósadh le cailín deas óg. Agus ní raibh sé ró-fhada pósta gur thit sé i gcoinsinsean.[2] Agus ní raibh leigheas ar bith ag na doctúirí dhó.

"Bhuel," arsa an bhean óg, "má gheibh tusa bás beidh mise marbh chomh luath leat... chomh luath leat."

"Ó, ní féidir sin," arsa an fear.

"Beidh (mar sin)," ar sise.

Tháinig deartháir[3] an bhuachaill chuig an bhfear tinn agus dúirt sé leis, "Tá talta agus toighthe anseo agad agus ba chóir duid do thiomna a dhéanamh agus gan é huilig a fhágáil ag an mnaoi óg."

"Och, níl gar ag caint air sin," ar seisean. "Beidh an mnaoi... Beidh an bhean óg marbh chomh luath liom féin."

"Bhuel," ar seisean, "beidh a fhios agad anocht cé hacu. Tá coileach mór Francach amuigh ansin," ar seisean, "agus lomfaidh mise anocht é, agus ní fhágfaidh mé gráinne air ach oiread le leac an tairsigh[4], agus ligfidh mé isteach ar an doras é eadar an dá sholas, agus beidh tusa in aon choirnéal amháin agus ise insa choirnéal eile. Agus nuair a déarfaidh sí 'Goidé sin ag teacht isteach?', ó, abair thusa gurb é an bás."

Rinne an fear mar a dúirt sé agus lig sé isteach an coileach Francach agus bhí sé ag síneadh a mhuinéil síos chuig an mbean óg. Agus chraith an bhean óg a lámh ar an coileach Francach agus, "Ní anseo an taobh ceart ar chor ar bith! Siúd thall é! Siúd thall é! Siúd thall é!"

Translation

There was a boy from the place I grew up who got married to a nice young girl. And he wasn't long married when he became consumptive. And the doctors had no cure for him.

"Well," said the young woman, "if you die I will be dead as soon as you... as soon as you."

"Oh, that can't be," said the man.

"It will be so," said she.

The boy's brother came to the sick man and told him, "You have land and buildings here and you ought to make a will and not leave all of it to the young woman."

"Och, it's pointless talking about that," he said. "The young woman... The young woman will be dead as soon as I am."

"Well," he said, "you'll know tonight one way or another. There's a big turkey-cock out there," he said, "and I will pluck it tonight, and I will leave it as bare as the threshold stone, and I will let it in the door at nightfall, and you will be in one corner and she will be in the other corner. And when she says 'What's that coming in?', oh, you say that it's death."

The man did as he was told and he let in the turkey-cock and it was stretching its neck down towards the young woman. And the young woman shook her hand at the turkey-cock and [said], "This isn't the right side at all! He's over there! He's over there! He's over there!"

Footnotes

Commentary

This humorous anecdote is a version of an international folktale, ATU 1354 Death for the old couple. It concerns a wife who says she wishes she would die rather than her ill husband. He tests her faithfulness by dressing up a bird as death, and when she sees it she points to her husband. It is found all over Europe, with a few examples in the Middle East, the U.S. and South Africa. See Hans Jorg Uther, The types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography (3 vols, Helsinki, 2004). It is a relatively scarce story type in Ireland, with a few examples scattered around the country. See Seán Ó Súilleabháin and Rieder Th. Christiansen, The types of the Irish folktale (Helsinki, 1968). It also contains international folk motifs, K2065.1 Woman and sick husband and J217.0.1.1 Trickster overhears man praying for death to take him. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8).

This item is transcribed in Heinrich Wagner and Colm Ó Baoill, Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (4 vols, Dublin, 1958-69), vol. 4, 300-1, and in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 304-7. Other versions appear also in Nollaig Mac Congáil and Ciarán Ó Duibhín, Glórtha ón tseanaimsir (Gleann an Iolair, 2009), 48-9, and in Éamonn Ó Tuathail, Seanchas Ghleann Ghaibhle, supplement to Béaloideas 4:4 (1934), 19-20.